The Skripal poisoning incident should be a wake-up call. The world's democracies have buried their heads in the sand despite Russia's obvious hostility to us, our values and the international system of rules that is meant to keep the peace. To say this is not war-mongering, but a logical conclusion drawn from Moscow's behaviour, from Syria to Ukraine, from its cyber-attacks to its interference in Western elections.

Vladimir Putin yesterday won a fourth presidential term with more than 70pc of the vote, according to exit polls, a strong result after a campaign troubled by lack of interest and an opposition boycott.

Russia's President Vladimir Putin has dismissing British accusations of Russia's involvement in ex-spy Sergei Skripal's poisoning as "nonsense", adding that Moscow is ready to cooperate with London in the probe.

Russians voted in a presidential election on Sunday that was expected to give Vladimir Putin an easy victory, but his opponents alleged officials were compelling people to come to the polls so that a low turnout does not tarnish the win.

Russia expelled 23 British diplomats yesterday in a carefully calibrated retaliatory move against London, which has accused the Kremlin of orchestrating a nerve toxin attack on a former Russian double agent and his daughter in southern England.

A war of words rages across the water over the poisoning of a former Russian spy and his daughter in Salisbury. In equally leafy Dublin 6, however, it seems the Kremlin has been quietly doing its bit to help the Irish housing crisis.

A crab caught by a potter off the coast of Donegal tomorrow afternoon will be for sale in a Beijing or Shanghai supermarket by Wednesday. Irish milk is now the biggest ingredient in high quality baby formula sold across China. Irish beef has crossed all political hurdles and will be imported to China later this year.

Soon after enrolling as a graduate student at Cambridge University in 1964, I encountered a fellow student, two years ahead of me. He was unsteady on his feet and spoke with great difficulty, the result of a degenerative disease he had been diagnosed with. His name was Stephen Hawking, and it was thought he might not survive long enough to finish his PhD.

Vladimir Putin's victory in Russia's presidential election today isn't in doubt. The only real question is whether voters will turn out in big enough numbers to hand him a convincing mandate for his fourth term - and many Russian workers are facing intense pressure to do so.

Russia expelled 23 British diplomats on Saturday in a retaliatory move over British accusations that the Kremlin orchestrated a nerve toxin attack on a former Russian double agent and his daughter in southern England.

The British government has for the first time directly accused Vladimir Putin of personally ordering the poisoning of a former spy in Salisbury, even as the Kremlin considered what retaliatory measures it would take to the ejecting of 23 Russian diplomats from the UK.

Russia is set to expel British diplomats in retaliation for Prime Minister Theresa May's decision to kick out 23 Russians as relations with London crashed to a post-Cold War low over an attack involving a military-grade nerve agent on English soil.

The leaders of France, Germany, the US and the UK have issued a joint statement blaming Russia for the nerve agent attack in England, as Moscow said it will expel British diplomats in retaliation for Theresa May's action against the Kremlin.

The Sergei Skripal affair has plunged the confrontation between Britain and Russia into a realm of "insanity" that is more dangerous than the Cold War, one of Vladimir Putin's foreign policy spokesmen has said.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said the European Union would present a common stance over a nerve agent attack on an ex-Russian spy in England for which British Prime Minister Theresa May holds Moscow responsible.

Britain is at a profound moment in its history and cannot sit back and let events overtake it, the UK's defence secretary will warn today, as he unveils measures to tackle chemical and biological warfare.

Britain has called for an urgent meeting of the United Nations Security Council to update members on the investigation into a nerve agent attack on a former Russian double agent and his daughter, the Foreign Office said on Wednesday.

Stephen Hawking captured the public's imagination as a trapped mind exploring the boundaries of scientific knowledge. Here are some memorable pearls of wisdom from one of the world's most famous scientists:

British counter-terrorism police have opened an investigation into the "unexplained" death on British soil of an arch enemy of Vladimir Putin, just eight days after the nerve gas assassination attempt on a Russian double agent.

US President Donald Trump and British Prime Minister Theresa May agreed last night that Russia must provide "unambiguous answers" after London gave Moscow until midnight to explain how a Soviet-era nerve weapon was used against a former Russian double agent.

Less than a month before Russia's presidential election Vladimir Putin cancelled several trips and unexpectedly disappeared from public view for nearly two weeks. When asked why, his spokesman blamed a common cold.

The man known as the 'Bookkeeper of Auschwitz' who in 2015 became one of the last people to be convicted for crimes in the Nazi genocide of Europe's Jews during World War II, has died aged 96, magazine 'Der Spiegel' reported yesterday.

Theresa May has given Vladimir Putin until midnight tonight to explain the use of a Russian-made nerve agent in the Salisbury attack or face retaliation for "a brazen attempt to murder innocent civilians on our soil".

A former student is taking her university to court after claiming that two years of study has left her with nothing more than a “Mickey Mouse” degree that has not helped her career, despite graduating with a first.

Marine Le Pen has proposed changing the name of the Front National to Rassemblement National - loosely translated as National Rally - as part of a makeover aimed at ridding the French far-right party of its racism-tinted past and getting it ready to take power.

Hundreds of people could have been contaminated by the nerve agent that poisoned a Russian double agent in Salisbury, officials have confirmed, as locals questioned last night why they were not warned sooner.

PEOPLE visiting Salisbury in England in the immediate aftermath of the suspected spy attack have been asked to take action amid concerns over a substance used to poison Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia.

We spent a year in anxiety, worrying about our colleague Deniz Yucel, imprisoned because he wrote things that the Turkish government did not like. He was a symbol for the risks taken by those who work for the truth. For example, the risk of sitting in prison, despite being innocent.

On a wall of British intelligence service GCHQ's sprawling donut-shaped office in Cheltenham, there is a large screen showing a map of the world - and of cyber-attacks. It seems to show digital missiles being fired every few seconds from Russia and China, hitting targets in Europe and America.

Tens of thousands of Slovaks have rallied this weekend to demand the resignation of prime minister Robert Fico's government following the murder of a journalist that has shocked the central European nation and stoked anger over sleaze in public life.

A little boy suffering from leukaemia whose widower father was able to take a year off work to care for him thanks to colleagues’ generosity has returned to nursery school after being declared well enough to leave hospital.

Matteo Salvini might best be described as Italy's answer to Donald Trump. The leader of La Lega (The League) has a policy platform called "Italians first", loves to provoke opponents through social media, wants Roma camps "razed to the ground" and insists that the fascist dictator Benito Mussolini actually did a lot of good things. He says the European Union cannot survive in its present form and condemns the euro as "a crime against humanity".

The investigation into the attempted assassination of Sergei Skripal took a dramatic turn yesterday when it emerged the detective made seriously ill in the nerve agent attack was poisoned at the home of the Russian spy.

Italians are no strangers to high political drama: its modern history has been marked by dizzying changes of government. Since 1980 alone, the lurching from one political crisis to the next has resulted in the post of prime minister being filled more than 20 times.